HOW-TO Install Host AP driver for Intersil Prism2/2.5/3

Host AP is a Linux driver for Intersil Prism 2/2.5/3 chipset based wireless network card. More information and current version of Host AP driver and hostap-utils can be acquiring following site: http://hostap.epitest.fi/

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My system :
- RHEL 4 with kernel 2.6.9-5 and 2.6.13-5
- SUSE Linux 10.0 with kernel 2.6.13
Wireless driver : Hostap-driver-0.4.7.tar.gz
Hostap-Util : Hostap-utils-0.4.7.tar.gz
Wireless card : PLANEX GW-CF11X
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1. Building Host AP driver.

# tar -zxvf hostap-driver-0.4.7.tar.gz
# cd hostap-driver-0.4.7

We have to change Makefile before compile Host AP driver. Edit the kernel path “KERNEL_PATH” in Makefile to math current system. Our case, we compiled kernel from the path “/usr/src/linux (KERNEL_PATH=/usr/src/linux).

# make
# make install

2. Add hostap modules to kernel.

# modprobe hostap_pci
or
# modprobe hostap
# modprobe hostap_cs

3. Check the kernel modules list.

# lsmod grep hostap
hostap_pci 67609 0
hostap 121096 1 hostap_pci
or
# lsmod grep hostap
hostap_cs 75288 3
hostap 141192 1 hostap_cs
pcmcia 42548 9 hostap_cs

4. After load the Host AP modules, we need to add wireless network PCMCIA card model information into config file (/etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf). Identify the current plugged wireless card.

# cardctl ident
Socket 0: product info: "PLANEX COMMUNICATIONS INC.", "PLANEX GW-CF11X Wireless CF Card", "", ""
manfid: 0xd601, 0x0010
function: 6 (network)

5. Add following string into config file "/etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf".

card "PLANEX GW-CF11X Wireless CF Card"
manfid 0xd601, 0x0010
bind "hostap_cs"

6. Installing Hostap-utils
Unpack the package and run the “make all” to build Hostap-utils.

# tar -zxvf hostap-utils-0.4.7.tar.gz
# cd hostap-utils-0.4.7
# make all

Copy following files to "/usr/bin" folder after built Hostap-utils.

- hostap_crypt_conf
- hostap_diag
- hostap_fw_load
- hostap_io_debug
- hostap_rid
- prism2_param

7. Check the wireless card

# iwconfig wlan0

Wifi0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:""
Mode: Managed . . . . . .

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:""
Mode: Managed . . . . .

8. THE END